Myers Novel Set for December Release

By Joel Frady

After three years of crafting his second novel, How to Make a Fortune with Free Speech, 72-year-old West Jefferson resident Rufus Myers has announced that the book is set for a release in early December. Myers is self-publishing the book, which will be on sale in West Jefferson.

Myers started work on Free Speech as a new year's resolution in January 2006 shortly after the release of his first book, 1799: North Carolina's Northwest Frontier. Unlike 1799, however, a book about the history of Ashe County region from 1750 to 1865 that took Myers 17 years to write, he finished the 156-page Free Speech in under three years.

Myers said the new book was inspired by the Speaker's Corner in London, England.

"It's a place people get together and argue and they have hecklers," said Myers. "They talk about anything and everything, and they do it in a civilized manner with no fistfights or anything. That got my curiosity up when I was young, so I've had it in the back of my mind all these years."

Myers uses the Speaker's Corner as an example for how Americans might better communicate.

"It's a way to expand freedom of speech and civil rights in the United States," he said, "a way to expand our freedoms rather than limit them or taking them away. I think people would do well to get together and talk about things among themselves to get to the truth of a matter." He noted that it might be "more beneficial to their well-being than listening to the radio or television, which has taken over the way people relate and talk and think.

"It's fun that way because some people come out with a lot of wit," he said. "I studied this and thought it through for about three years and how it could be developed."

He added that he thinks "it's a novel idea." To make his argument, Myers said he has compiled a "history of freedom of speech in the United States" with illustrations collected from newspapers, primarily from Ashe County and the Carolinas.

The first printing of How to Make a Fortune with Free Speech will consist of 100 copies that will be sold at the Ingles grocery store and Skyline Books, both in West Jefferson. The book will be released in conjunction with the third printing of 1799.

For Myers, who worked in engineering before he started writing, the printings are enjoyable because he gets to see his "creation come into reality, because it's a lot of hard work." He later added that "it's a real task, but it's not for me because I like to write."

Both Free Speech and 1799 retail for $25 to $30 for a mail order copy.

To find out more about the books, contact Myers at (336) 846-6321 or Skyline Books at (336) 846-2660.